Katherine Shepherd

We were originally going to give this blog the title ‘A typical outreach evening’ but then realised that there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ evening.  There are also no patterns – days of the week can be different each time…. and the weather doesn’t have an impact either, as the women are out […]

As Volunteers Week 2023 draws to a close, we just wanted to share with you how important the Rahab volunteers are to our work.  We simply could not do it without them as they are the lifeblood of Rahab. Our volunteers come from the churches all over Reading.  They have a passion to help those

I did not know what to expect when I signed up to Rahab, over 2 years ago. Although I have previously done some short-term outreach supporting sex workers in in South America, this felt different. This was local. These were women who were involuntarily operating in the perilous and unpredictable sex industry; on the streets,

When archiving Rahab materials last year, we came upon a set of poems written by one of the women ‘S’ a few years ago. One of the most common questions we are asked is why do women turn to sex work and what has happened in their life for them to make the decisions they

We are delighted to share with you our impact Statement for 2022.  To read more click here We could not have done this without the help of our supporters, donors and those that hold us in their prayers.  In John 1 v 5 we read “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has

In January we blogged about the outcomes of our work in 2022.  We shared with you the number of outreach sessions and the number of contacts made and, while these figures show the breadth of our work, they do not reflect the depth of the work that we do. For example, the statistics don’t demonstrate

2022 was a busy year for the team.  We did more outreaches than in the previous year with a 15% increase in the number of nights that a team was out (150 outreach opportunities). In turn, there was an increase in the number of contacts by 33% to 582 with over just 45 different women

Please spare us a minute to watch our Christmas message by clicking here. Thank you for your support this year and we wish you a Happy Christmas and a wonderful and blessed new year.

We are now collecting gifts to give out to the women over the Christmas period. If you are able to donate gifts to us to share with them – we would be very grateful. In the past we have been told that the present they receive from us is the only present they will get

Writing this blog has made me reflect on some of the conversations we have during outreaches.  Sometimes we have in depth conversations about housing difficulties, health challenges, or the impact of drugs and alcohol.  Other times we spend the evening talking about our favourite cake, hearing about the antics of a lady’s new kitten, or watching a